Unemployment lowest in state: Is it also lowest in nation?
The latest numbers from Job Service North Dakota’s Labor Market Information Center report that Williams County has the lowest unemployment rate in the state, and perhaps the lowest in the entire United States.
September numbers, which are the most recent available, put Williams County at a staggeringly-low 0.9 percent.
“In my words, it’s unbelievable,” Williston Workforce Development Coordinator Shawn Wenko said. “I’ve never in my life heard of an unemployment rate that low.”
North Dakota as a whole had a 2.7 percent unemployment rate in September. These numbers are not seasonally adjusted.
“You’re literally talking about a handful of people not working,” Wenko said. Mayor Ward Koeser said despite the local problems with housing and infrastructure, the low unemployment and strong economy are things worth being grateful for.
“I would venture to say there’s no place in the country with as low unemployment as us,” Koeser said.
Wenko said most of the people making up that 0.9 percent are likely the young, elderly or disabled.
With between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs listed for the Williston area through Job Service North Dakota at any given time, Wenko said it shows how much of a shortage there is in the area labor pool.
“It’s saying what the news media says (lately) is true,” Wenko said.
Michael Ziesch, manager with Job Service North Dakota’s Labor Market Information Center, said the state’s western counties have been posting very low unemployment rates.
He said Williams County touched 0.9 percent in April as well.
“You’re a pretty robust county in terms of employment,” Ziesch said.
He said the local labor pool in counties such as Williams County has been very thoroughly tapped.
Ziesch added that Job Service North Dakota’s message to people considering coming to the area need to do their homework and have a plan for housing.
“We want the out-of-state job seekers to do an honest assessment of their job skills before coming up here,” Ziesch said.
Seven other counties in western North Dakota reported unemployment rates of less than 2 percent in September.
Those counties are Slope (1.1 percent), McKenzie (1.4 percent), Mountrail (1.5 percent), Billings (1.5 percent), Stark (1.6 percent), Dunn (1.7 percent) and Bowman (1.9 percent).
Nationally, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.1 percent for the third consecutive month.
Now this would have nothing to do with the fact that North Dakota is having an oil boon, in spirt of the efforts of the Obama regime to push the country to Green Energy or the use of Chinese money to push boondoggles like Solyndra. And the market is actually supplying a product (oil) that people want and need, providing employment for citizens and tax revenue for the government.
Simple economics at work...now if someone will send this article to B Hussein Obama, little Timmy Tax-Cheat at the Treasury and the entire US Congress...they may get a clue.
Thanks to NewsAlert for the link.
UPDATE: I thought I heard something about this before. From Darren at Right on the Left Coast.
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